DAVIS, John, a Representative from Kansas; born near Springfield, Sangamon
County, Ill., August 9, 1826; moved with his parents to Macon County in 1830;
attended the country schools, Springfield Academy, and Illinois College,
Jacksonville, Ill.; engaged in agricultural and horticultural pursuits near
Decatur, Ill.; moved to Kansas in 1872 and located on a farm near Junction
City; secretary of the Central Kansas Horticultural Society for many years;
elected president of the first distinctive farmers convention held in Kansas
in 1873, out of which grew the Farmers Cooperative Association, of which he
was the first president; president of the Grange convention in 1874; became
proprietor and editor of the Junction City Tribune in 1875; unsuccessful
candidate of the Greenback Party for election in 1880 to the Forty-seventh
Congress and in 1882 to the Forty-eighth Congress; elected as a Populist to the
Fifty-second and Fifty-third Congresses (March 4, 1891-March 3, 1895);
unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1894 to the Fifty-fourth Congress;
devoted his time to literary work until his death in Topeka, Kans., August 1,
1901; interment in Topeka Cemetery.